This article revises and updates to 1983 a survey of the foreign assets of the oil exporting countries (OECs) published in the June 1980 Bulletin which looked at the period 1974 to 1979. The main features are:
- a brief description of the GECs' current account, which went very sharply into surplus in 1974 and again in 1979-80 following sharp rises in the price of oil;
an examination of the changing structure of the oil exporters' portfolio, which shows that the initial adjustment to current account movements was primarily in changes in liquid asset holdings and borrowing;
- an examination of the changing structure of the oil exporters' portfolio, which shows that the initial adjustment to current account movements was primarily in changes in liquid asset holdings and borrowing;
- consideration of the disposition of the portfolio among industrial countries.
Oil exporters surpluses and their deployment